Kerala: Master of elementary education

NEW DELHI: No prizes for guessing this one: Kerala has been ranked first as far as elementary education in the country is concerned.

Predictably, southern states are leading while states such as Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh are the laggards. The government has introduced an education development index (EDI) that ranks the states and Union territories on parameters related to elementary education.

While the southern states topping the charts may be par for course, what is surprising is that a state like West Bengal is among the worst performers, ranking 32nd out of 35. States such as Uttar Pradesh (29), Rajasthan (26), Chhattisgarh (25) and Haryana (23) — that have been traditionally written off as poor performers or educationally-backward — seem to have challenged common perception.

In the age of competition, the government sees the EDI as an exercise that will encourage the states to improve performance. It is expected that the balance-sheet exercise will help more effective targeting of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan funds. Already, the government is focusing on backward districts, and the EDI exercise will help ensure that such targeting is more effective.

The EDI has been developed keeping in mind four broad parameters of access, infrastructure, teacher-related indicators and outcomes. The index takes into account availability of schools, the average student-to-child ratio, the availability of drinking water facilities, and availability of toilets for girls and boys. States with a student classroom ratio of more that 60 to a class would be at an disadvantage.

Likewise, when it comes to teacher-related indicators, the number of female teachers, average pupil-to-teacher ratio, single-teacher schools and teachers without professional qualifications has been considered while developing the index.

So, a state like Madhya Pradesh, that has relied on para teachers, would stand to lose with the index. Other indicators, broadly described as outcomes, used for the index include general enrolment ratio, enrolment of scheduled castes and tribes children, dropout rate, percentage of children who complete eight years of schooling compared to total enrolment, and percentage of students who pass out with more than 60% marks.

The ranking study has been conducted by National University of Educational Planning & Administration (NUEPA). The first tentative exercise will now be carried out annually. The ranking of the performance of states in elementary education has been conceptualised as a trial balance-sheet.

The NUEPA proposes to make the detailed findings public by the end of the month. As a next step, it has been proposed to conduct the ranking at the district level.